Ahearn Park

This small Lower East Side park is one of New York Citys oldest.
On August 2, 1824, the Common Council agreed to take a triangular piece of land between
Grand, Harman (now East Broadway), and Scammel Streets as a public place. The City
acquired the parcel by condemnation the following year for $3158.23.

In 1870 all of New Yorks public parks, from small public squares
in Lower Manhattan to the not-yet-complete Central Park, were placed under the control of
the newly created Department of Public Parks. Sweeping improvements were initiated
immediately. Between 1871 and 1872, Grand Street Place (as this park was then known) was
surveyed and received new lampposts, plantings, curbs, water and drain pipes, and an iron
railing. It was one of fourteen New York parks that featured a program of music and
fireworks on Independence Day in 1873.